Ducat Jean. Spartan Education: Youth and society in the Classical Period

Classical Press of Wales, 2006. — 362 p.Jean Ducat is the leading French authority on Classical Sparta. Here is what is likely to be seen as his magnum opus. Ducat systematically collects, translates and evaluates the sources - famous and obscure alike - for Spartan education. He deploys his familiar combination of good judgment and uncompromising recognition of the limits to our knowledge, while drawing at times on aspects of French structuralism. This book is likely to become the definitive reference on its subject, while also informing and provoking the future work of others. Sparta was admitted by Greeks generally, even by its Athenian enemies, to be the School of Hellas. Ducat's work is thus a major contribution to our understanding of Greek ideas, and indeed to the history of education.Jean Ducat was born in Morocco in 1933. He followed the usual French cursus in classical studies, as a pupil of the Ecole Normale Superieure (1953-7), then as a member of the French School of Archaeology in Athens (1960-3). He spent the major part of his professional life as a Professor of Greek History in the University of Nice. First known as a specialist in Greek archaic sculpture, since 1974 ("Le mepris des Hilotes") he has been increasingly interested in Spartan matters: first in the Spartan way of slavery (Les Hilotes, 1990; Les Penestes, 1994), then more generally in Spartan life and society, on which he has written and is still writing many articles. He now lives in Metz.